The Passive Voice is the Tell: Mike Huckabee is a gutless sophist dept.

Update: A day late, but still:  Huckabee takes responsibility — and defends his decision to commute Maurice Clemmons’ sentence to make him eligible for parole.  His defense is coherent, morally consistent, and — incidentally — one which I find persuasive.  (That TomLevensonSealOfApproval™  is not worth very much:  the question of whether or not this was [...]

I’m Baaaaaack….with some Newton notes…

A return to full blogging this week, I promise, but just to get things going (barring that little amuse bouche re Google voice recognition) with a teaser for a renewed assault on the “Diary of a Trade Book” series, I thought I’d post a reactions to a couple of bits of Newton and the Counterfeiter [...]

Still a Few Bugs in the System: Google Voice edition

Unedited (though topped and tailed to remove identifiers), parse this voicemail message, as interpreted by the non-evil doers at Google: I’m waiting for just pick me up from the hospital. I spent last night here and I am now much better. They a ring me out and shot a bullet up up the under, and [...]

Horn Tooting: Library Journal/Newton and the Counterfeiter Edition

I’ve been waaay remiss in self aggrandizement/book hawking on this blog lately, so it is my pleasure to report that Library Journal put Newton and the Counterfeiter on its Best Books 2009 list. Money quote from the accompanying article: “What I looked for in my best books picks was unique voices,” [Library Journal Fiction Editor] [...]

Friday Quote + Bonus Audio/Video: Jimi and Muddy edition

From August Kleinzahler’s truly addictive book of essays on music (and obsession…) Music I-LXXIV: Jimi Hendrix once told Rolling Stone: ” The first guitarist I was aware of was Muddy Waters.  I heard one of his records when I was a little boy and it scared me to death.” not to mention…

Sexual terror kills people: a sort-of follow up to David Brooks’ sexual queasiness.

A few days ago I wrote this screed of disdain about David Brooks data-less, thoughtless complaint about the vapid sex lives of Kids These Days™.*  I have more than once commented on the evil consequences of marrying sexual queasiness to bad science, social or otherwise — and it struck me that  it is important to [...]

Apologia Pro Vita Bloga (With apologies to Mrs. Small, who taught me better Latin.)

No blogging for more than a week!  Massive fail. My only excuse: November is the cruelest month, at least as far as my particular academic calendar goes.  As my students toil, so do I (the part they never tell you about when you step sideways into the Academy). So, a couple of posts are slouching [...]

All you need to know about the modern press, (The Push Cart War Edition)…

…you can find in my kid’s fourth grade reading assignment, that classic, Jean Merrill’s The Pushcart War. In Chapter IX, “The Secret Campaign Against the Pushcarts,” Merrill describes the truckers’ skillful use of captive media.  An anonymous columnist in a weekly owned by one of the truck companies wrote again and again about “The Pushcart Menance.” [...]

Newton and the Counterfeiter News: A whole hour of me talking about the book for your pleasure

Here, via MIT World, is the video of my talk in the MIT Writer’s Series to explain the who, what, why of that book I’ve mentioned here once or twice, Newton and the Counterfeiter.  (Amazon,Powells, Barnes and Noble,Indiebound and  across the pond at Amazon.co.uk,Waterstones, Blackwells, Borders,John Smith & Son) Bonus video: a wonderfully generous and over the top introduction by [...]

Why Does Anyone Listen To David Brooks? Women and Sex Scare Me edition

The punditocracy is, as we all know by know, frighteningly well populated by naked emperors.  David Brooks is not the most egregious — not for lack of trying, I admit — but given the competition, I’m not even sure if he makes the top ten. But he is exemplary, and his column of November 2 [...]